Bob Hearn Featured in “Epstein Becker Adds Health Care Atty from Phelps Dunbar”

National law firm Epstein Becker Green announced on Wednesday it brought on a former Phelps Dunbar LLP healthcare and commercial litigation partner as a member of the firm.

Robert R. Hearn joins the firm's St. Petersburg, Florida office in its healthcare and life sciences division, as well as its litigation and business disputes practice. He spent the previous decade-and-a-half at Phelps Dunbar.

"I couldn't be more excited," Hearn told Law360 of joining the firm. "I had high expectations when I came over and now that I've been here for a week and had time to meet even more of the people and my new partners, I'm really, really excited about them on a personal and professional level."

Hearn has a focus on representing medical providers, laboratories, product manufacturers, researchers and pharmaceutical companies. He has guided such clients on issues concerning product liability, death and injury and also counseled them through regulatory and compliance matters.

Hearn said that his practice, which mixes litigation and healthcare, felt complementary to what Epstein offered and prompted him to make the move.

"Over the course of the last 15 years, my practice had become much more focused on representing healthcare oriented entities, both in litigation and regulatory matters, and the level of expertise I needed to support the practice that I've developed was growing," he said. "Those two types of practices really are not all that common in many firms but they are common in Epstein. I think that they get what it is I do and how it is I practice." ... 

"Bob is well known for distilling and presenting complex issues to courts and juries, and for bringing sophisticated regulatory counsel to the laboratory, clinical trial, pharmaceutical and medical products industries," Mark Lutes, Epstein's board of directors chair, said in a statement. "He will be a great resource to our clients throughout the state of Florida and nationally."